“Oh, You’re an Actor?”

Yes. Yes I Am.

Yes. Yes I am.

However — what you think that means and what it actually means are very different things.

Yes, I’ve been in movies, shows, and web streams. No, nothing you’ve heard of. Although — there is one in the works that you will have heard of. That’s all I can say about that.

Here’s what “I’m an actor” actually means: it’s the only job where you pay to get hired, wait to work, and get paid less than the work is worth. There is no PA. No trailer. No beach. I’m not dodging paparazzi or having lunch with my people in LA. If you’re on this site, you already know there’s also a business, and I’m a pastor. The glamour is minimal. The craft is real.

My last booking: up at 3:30am, on set on time — because I’m a professional — and then waited several more hours before my scene was ready. Wrapped. Got stuck in Atlanta traffic on a Friday afternoon. Before I even got that booking, I took classes. I did extra work. I did TFP shoots across the region on my own dime — some of that footage I’m still waiting on since 2019. I have passed on paid work to be on a production that paid me considerably less.

And the infrastructure? The “super secret network” of this industry costs money. Membership fees. Submissions. Headshots. Demo reels. And agents — who take at minimum 20%, and should. Their hustle is real. Every audition you don’t land, every booking that doesn’t come through — they worked for you. For free. The good ones earn every percent.

But I do love it. There is a particular magic to being on set — working with like-minded people and perfect strangers, coming together to tell a story. Not for themselves. For you.

That’s why we do it.

Atlanta is a real film market. Has been for over a decade. The tax incentives brought the productions, the productions built infrastructure, and now there’s a legitimate industry here — stages, crews, casting offices, the whole thing.

What that means for an actor living 25 miles south of the city is: you’re in it, but you have to show up for it. Atlanta doesn’t have the same walk-in-off-the-street energy that New York or LA once had. You build relationships. You get in the room. You stay ready.

The VO side is different — that work lives in a booth, travels over a file transfer, and the client can be anywhere. It’s the most location-independent part of this career, which is part of why I built one. Four acres in Lovejoy is a great place to raise bees. It is not always a great place to drive to an audition from at 7am.

The work is the work. Some of it’s on camera, some of it’s in the booth, some of it’s the phone call that leads to neither and then six months later leads to both. That’s the honest shape of it.

More on specific projects as they’re cleared to talk about.

If you’ve navigated the Atlanta film market — as an actor, crew, or casting — what’s your honest take? Find me on Instagram.